Movie Review: John Woo’s Red Cliff
I’ve posted some amazing pictures before. I’ve even spoken about an opportunity to tour with a good friend of mine. But when it comes to exploring the vast history of the Chinese empire, I haven’t had a great opportunity to highlight this amazingly interesting subject matter until now.
Think about it… Unless you focused specifically on other history in your collegiate or post-graduate studies, chances are that your academic and literary exposure to history centered around western civilization, such as Rome, Greece, and the Americas.
Famed Hong Kong Director John’s Woo’s latest epic movie, Red Cliff, gives viewers a rare opportunity to sneak a peek into China’s illustrious thousands-of-years long history. Set in a time period of tumultuous change, with a puppet Emperor and warlord’s waging war for control, this movie gives us the battle of Red Cliff. Fought in the year 208 AD, this was a pivotal and decisive battle during the end of the Han Dynasty and immediately predates the period of the three kingdoms.
I can not say enough how awesome this movie is. Probably the my favorite eastern action film ever. It was nominated for 15 honors at the famed Hong Kong Film Awards and its award-winning cinematography and visual effects make Lord of the Ring’s Battle of Minas Tirith seem like an afterthought. Set for a November US release, I highly recommend this film to any historian, or movie-goer for that matter.
Check out the preview for yourself.
The year was 208AD, the Prime Minister Cao Cao (Fengyi Zhang) has taken control of Northern China and made the Emperor a puppet ruler. But the south is defiance. Lord Liu Bei (Yong You) tries to fight and has excellent general, but is hopelessly outnumbered by Cao Cao “>Cao forces. He sets out to make an alliance with two other Southern Lords, the young Sun Quan (Chen Chang) and military expert Zhou Yu (Tony Leung). Liu Bei uses his chief adviser Kongming (Takeshi Kaneshiro) to negotiate with Lords. Even with this new alliance, Cao Cao still outnumbers the 3 Kingdoms with a force of 800,000 troops. Zhou Yu and Kongming sets out the win the coming battle with strategy, expert military tactics, trickery, the weather and spies. Here the two forces set out for the coming battle.
Tip: If you’re got a high-definition television, a suitable surround sound system, AND ATT U-Verse, you can screen this movie NOW by renting the HD Version for only $11 on Video on Demand. Do it quick though, I don’t know how much longer they’ll offer it since its coming out in theaters soon.
Explore posts in the same categories: Culture, MoviesTags: action, battle, Chi Bi, china, han dynasty, John Woo, Red Cliff, three kingdoms
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
November 1, 2009 at 5:54 pm
WEB SHERIFF
Who You Gonna Call
Tel 44-(0)208-323 8013
Fax 44-(0)208 323 8080
websheriff@websheriff.com
http://www.websheriff.com
Hi there,
On behalf of Magnolia Pictures and the movie’s producers, many thanks for plugging “Red Cliff” … .. thanks also, on behalf of the distributors and producers, for not posting any pirate copies or non-trailer clips of “Red Cliff” and if you / your readers want good quality, non-pirated, previews, then the official trailer for “Red Cliff” is available for fans and bloggers to post/ host / share etc at http://www.apple.com/trailers/magnolia/redcliff/ … .. for further details of on-line promotions for this movie and Magnolia releases generally, check-out http://www.magpictures.com and their official YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/MagnoliaPictures .
Thanks again for your plug.
Regards,
WEB SHERIFF